Cannabis is OK. Alcohol is OK. But cannabis-infused alcohol is not

IF AN INGREDIENT exists, humans have tried to make alcohol out of it. There are wheat and potatoes and barley, obviously, and a whole host of botanicals, but there’s also alcohol made from or infused with things such as artichokes, milk, bacon, venomous snakes, severed toes; there’s even beer brewed with yeast from a brewmaster’s beard. So you would think that the recent decriminalization and/or legalization of cannabis across many of our nation’s states (including this one) would mean a new flowering of cannabis-based tipples.

But you would be wrong.

If you’re over 21 in Washington state, you can legally consume alcohol and cannabis. And if you’ve been to a party recently, it’s possible you have done both at the same time (and then, like a grown-up, took an Uber home). I am not going to discuss the responsible consumption of intoxicating substances here, because that is between all of you and your own bodies; suffice it to say that while the state of Washington condones alcohol and THC products for recreational use and general sale, it does not, as of this writing, allow commercial producers to combine them into one product. However, the real parameters of this are extremely confusing … so much so that I had to call an expert.

“The regulations say that somebody who holds a liquor license cannot allow anyone to consume cannabis on the premises,” says Emily Gant, a Washington-based attorney with expertise in the legalities of alcohol and cannabis regulation. This is why you will not find THC-laced cocktails at your local (legal) speak-easy, or THC beers at the bottle shop. And also, according to Gant, those with a license to produce cannabis products cannot produce products with alcohol in them, either, because that would require a liquor license, which, according to the rule above, cannot be obtained.

The most confusing aspect of alcohol and cannabis laws is down to botany. To begin with, hops (humulus lupulus), the essential flower that lends bitterness to beer, and cannabis (cannabis sativa) are in the same taxonomical family — the cannabaceae — and, like many plants, both contain hydrocarbons known as terpenes, substances that impart the distinctive flavors you associate with, say, sage or juniper. In cannabis sativa, the terpenes are what carry the cannabinoids CBD and THC, which are absent in hops.

Even more confusingly, hemp and marijuana are in reality the very same plant, cannabis sativa. The differentiating factor is the cannabinoid level in the individual strain of plant; strains considered hemp must contain less than .3% THC. And CBD, the cannabidiol in cannabis that does not get you high but supposedly (and I do mean supposedly, until we get some better data on the topic) imparts a milder, nonintoxicating relaxation and drowsiness, floats in a nebulous legal gray area that has made the government squidgy about allowing alcohol purveyors to include it in their products, partially because it is included in an FDA-approved epilepsy medication. So you cannot legally produce and sell products with CBD and alcohol in them, either, in theory, although producers around the country continue to push the envelope, and such products can be intermittently found for sale, perhaps due to exploring the limits of the laws on production methods and compliance.

However, hemp itself is a (mostly) legal substance in the United States, and according to Gant, hemp products such as hulled hemp seeds, which are on the FDA’s GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) list, are, from the point of view of the federal government, legal for inclusion in products for interstate commerce, which is why you can buy hempseed granola in most grocery stores around the country, and an increasing number of hemp-flavored beers and alcohols in liquor stores.

“What TTB [the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau] doesn’t want is for someone to make a beer or a vodka and to have it be infused with cannabis,” says Gant. “But you could do a hemp-based beer as long as the hemp is derived from products on the GRAS list.”

So no; there’s no weed liquor, strictly speaking. At least, not anymore. Around five-ish years ago, when many states began the glacial process of legalizing cannabis for recreational use, distilleries and breweries enthusiastically brewed up vodkas and beers and wines that contained CBD and/or THC, such as Dad & Dudes Breweria in Colorado, which lost a fight with the FDA over its CBD beer in 2018, despite initially gaining TTB approval. Many similar drinks were subsequently discontinued for the same reason.

So all those alcoholic beverages marketed with the familiar green coloring and groovy language that evoke the aura of cannabis are actually made with GRAS-list hemp products, which in theory impart weed-y terpene flavor but do not contain CBD or THC and thus do not, in theory, contribute to the beverage’s buzz. To be considered legal, these products must, according to Gant, be submitted to the TTB for “formula approval” and then jump through a series of other regulatory hoops before being approved for interstate sale. The increasing number of producers cropping up that appear to have found a way to sell their drinks and still be in compliance suggests that this new frontier is a learning experience for everyone involved, including Uncle Sam.

Now, you can drink your THC if there is no alcohol in the beverage. There are many such products on offer, from coffees and teas to faux wines and nonalcoholic beers that are in reality cannabis beverages (I promise a column on those in the future). But if you, private citizen of age in the state of Washington, are determined to combine your intoxicants — and, caveat preparator — you can purchase said beverages and use them as mixers with alcohol that you purchase legally at, say, a grocery store, and consume them recreationally in the privacy of your own home.

You also, as a private citizen in your own home, are well within your rights to concoct a beverage colorfully referred to as a Green Dragon, or cannabis-infused alcohol, for personal consumption. I will not go into the recipe for this (that’s what the internet is for); suffice it to say that it requires that you first decarboxylate your cannabis to release the THC and then infuse it into a neutral spirit. A culinarily-minded person could also, say, cook up THC-infused simple syrups and add them to cocktails as a mixer. Needless to say, this kind of mixology should be done with extreme caution (as a combination of these two kinds of intoxicants could render you facedown on the floor), but then that attitude should be taken to intoxicants generally.

If you’re already someone who consumes a marijuana chocolate and a beer in the same evening — perfectly legal to do — this is functionally no different. So, as with everything, if you must experiment in your kitchen, just don’t be stupid about it.

And tip your Uber driver.